I think colleges and universities should opt to have their own “free” online courseware to showcase a subject that they offer. They could also offer advance courses for high school students in preparation towards the universities’ curriculum. The design of the course should be leveled as a review of their high school subject and a preparatory for their college degree. The online course may or may not be ladderized but I suggest that it may be tailored as an advertisement for high school students and potential transferees. This is to give them a sneak peak of what the college can offer and what environment does the classroom have.

Virtual classrooms have been made possible by Moodle and Chamilo. These platforms can automate exam and quiz checking, and report card and certificate generation.

With the dawn of smart phones and tablets, high school and college students could download apps, lectures. quizzes and exams that may help them through their learning experience.

The development of the curriculum may take a trimester but once it is already finished, it will be just a breeze.

Moodle can also be partnered with mahara as an extenesion. This online software can be installed within the college’s website and showcase the college’s best assets, the PROFESSORS. Professors on the other hand can manage their portfolios online, upload lectures and publications, contact details and more.

The point of these all is that the internet can be used to exchange knowledge and not just information. Social media like twitter and facebook are powerful tools that can be connected with these online softwares.

What do you think? Please place your ideas in the comments section.

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ResumUP is a new way to market yourself and stand out in the job seeking world. The website helps you generate a timeline to show how you have developed your career profile and help you step-by-step by providing you a roadmap to your career. It is complete with connections and skills that you have to learn to for you to be able to achieve your goal. It is still in beta and needs a lot of improvement, especially for Filipino students who needs a stepping stone here in the Philippines before competing in the global market.

Figure 1 Career Timeline with Legend

The visual resume is both informative and useful. It is also simple enough to be understood by someone in the information technology industries. Your resume can be imported from your LinkedIn or Facebook profiles. You can also generate your own from the pop-ups. ResumUP can also make a text version of your resume.

Though still lacking a few directions and careers, ResumUP offers a career path one should take in order to succeed. The app offers a step-by-step development to reach your dream goal. Your dream job may have steps in-between and skills to learn in order to “level-up” to the next job. I view this by how you “build” yourself like in MMORPG’s to land in a new “tier” or “job”.

Figure 2 Hobbies, Personality and Skill Charts

Suggestions to make it better

I think ResumUP need career consultants in different fields from different countries to be more effective. They could also directly link the LinkedIn profile so that ResumUP would automatically update as well.

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My girlfriend and I went to Hong Kong last week for a vacation. It was technically my second time getting there but I was too young to remember my first. Anyway, the adventure was very enjoyable! Our itineraries were just Disneyland and the Ocean Park though we went to the Avenue of Stars and watched the Symphony of Lights.

So the schedule went:

November 25, 2013

Arrival at HK International Airport

Bus ride to Hostel

Check-in at Hostel Room

November 26, 2013

Breakfast

Disneyland

Avenue of Stars and Symphony of Light (8:00 p.m.)

Dinner

November 27, 2013

Breakfast

Ocean Park

Dinner

Shopping

November 28, 2013

HK International Airport

For those asking for tips, please see below:

Prepare Php 1620.00 per person for travel tax and Php 550.00 per person for terminal fee for NAIA.

Don’t buy food inside the airport. Prices are doubled!

Get HK and MTR transfer maps. They are very helpful!

Upon arrival at airport, buy an Octopus Card located at the arrivals level of HK International Airport (Just look for the MTR symbol ), it costs HKD 150 per card (HKD 100 load and HKD 50 as a deposit for the card). You will be able to get the deposit once you return the card. The Octopus Card is ideal if you plan to stay at HK for more than a day. Don’t buy the Tourist Card (HKD 120)! Though it’s for unlimited rides at the MTR, it’s only good for one day.

There are many free tourist spots at HK.

Avenue of Stars

Symphony of Lights (8:00 p.m.)

Don’t ride the airport express train to and from the airport, it’s very expensive!

Allot HKD 200 dollars per person for deposits!

Buy Disneyland and Ocean Park Tickets at the Hostel you are staying, they have special discounts and you can avoid the long queues at the theme parks.

Disneyland is HKD 450 but you can buy them for HKD 420

Ocean Park is HKD 320 but you can buy them for HKD 280

Don’t forget to get your deposits!

Arrive at the airport three to four hours before your departure.

If you have questions, just right them in the comments J

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Last month was quite slide! I really need to stick to my budget. Currently, I’m 90% towards my goal 40% lower than my previous balance and way overboard than my projection. This month, I’ll be taking my leave to go to Hong Kong. My plan is to pull out some stocks to pay off some of my debts. I’m having a hard time keeping up with my fluctuating tax lowering my net income. Hopefully, my tax and net income would stabilize so I could budget more wisely.

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Lately, some of my previous students are asking for a copy of my resume. I know I’m not an expert on how to apply for a job but I think it’s best to set define your brand before applying for a job.

Make a Good Resume

Arrange your resume to display your skills. Maybe for students applying for an on-the-job training (OJT) and for newly grads, it might be better to arrange your resume in this fashion:

Contact Details

Degree earned

Skills

Others

In the future if you have your work experience already, you could arrange it this way:

Contact Details

Work Experience

Skills

Degree earned

Others

You could also place a link pointing to your online resume for a more detailed skill set or you can place a QR code like this one for potential employers to scan and save your details right away:

Always remember that we are a technology based generation, information is mostly online nowadays.

Network!

It’s a good practice to have a personal calling card. It’s a good style to showcase your talents in making your calling cards. You could have your own logo or insert a QR code as well.

Make your Portfolio

As I have said: “Information is mostly online nowadays.” People should see what you can do. Photographers and Web Designers shouldn’t be the only people that have portfolios! Programmers should showcase what they can do and Engineers should show their works, knowledge and skills on a website. You may find a good blog site or you may even make your own.

Finding a job nowadays is very difficult and finding a good employee is harder! We may never know when we are being head hunted for a position. Always update your resume and be prepared for what it is to come.

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A friend of mine once asked me if you could send email messages to all your friends but to one friend at a time or specific to that person instead of using the BCC option. So here’s how:

Create a database using your MS Access. Include all the information you want to include like surname, given name, nickname and email

When your database is complete look for the “External Data” tab on your menu. Click “More” located on the “Export” group and then click on Merge it with “Microsoft Office Word”. (You may need to close and reopen your MS Access to proceed)

Select what you want to do. If you already have a template, select the first one, if you want to start from scratch, click the second option.

Upon clicking whichever option, you will be redirected to MS Word and a “Mail Merge” Wizard will open on the right side of the window.

Just follow the steps located at the bottom right corner of the screen.

On step 4 of 6, you will have an option to edit the a template and insert fields from the “More Items…” option.

You could preview your letter on Step 5 of 6 for each recipient.

To send an email to all of the receipients, just click the “Mailings” tab and click “Finish & Merge” from the “Finish” group then “Send E-mail Messages” to send this specifically to every person on your database.

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Just a few months ago I was buried in debt. Four months more, I will be able to attain my balance goal and eight months after that, my D-to-E ratio goal. I would also want to tackle my weight problem! I’ll give myself 2 years to attain my weight problem and tone myself.

I’m currently at 83.25% towards my balance goal and 31.43% towards my D-to-E ratio goal. A month and a half more for my regularization!

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“Ningas Kugon” or should be say “A flash in the pan”? This is an aptly term for laws here in the Philippines. Last week, August 11, 2013, when I traversed my routine path towards Five Star Bus Terminal, I was surprised by how clean it was. There were no more sidewalk vendors in sight! I guessed that the “No Vendors Allowed Here” sign paid off. I went back there on the 15th and saw a few vendors laying down their carpets and a few products then last Sunday (August 18, 2013), like mushrooms, they were back complete with tables and awnings!

This section of the Metro is the hub of all travelers from both South and North Luzon. It is filled with malls, marketplaces, bus terminals and motels. Unfortunately, this section is also teeming with hooligans, pickpockets and criminals. I am not saying that the sidewalk vendors and criminals are the same, but the situation gives these criminals to do their business – slow moving pedestrians with bags and pocketful of money in a crowded place! Sidewalks are for pedestrians and not for vendors.

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Even though the stock market is consolidating nowadays due to the dreaded “Ghost Months”, my balance has never been this high. I am 46% better than my June balance and 36.92% better than my July balance making this my all time high balance since January 2011. I am currently 7.84% better than my month’s projection and 75.79% on my way to my balance goal. My current D-to-E ratio is at 1.3963 which makes it 30.91% towards my goal.

The stock market is not performing that well recently. Currently BDO Equity fund is at 393.0935 per unit only.